title: Raman study of mechanically induced oxygenation state transition of red blood cells using optical tweezers.
abstract: Raman spectroscopy was used to monitor changes in the oxygenation state of human red blood cells while they were placed under mechanical stress with the use of optical tweezers. The applied force is intended to simulate the stretching and compression that cells experience as they pass through vessels and smaller capillaries. In this work, spectroscopic evidence of a transition between the oxygenation and deoxygenation states, which is induced by stretching the cell with optical tweezers, is presented. The transition is due to enhanced hemoglobin-membrane and hemoglobin neighbor-neighbor interactions, and the latter was further studied by modeling the electrostatic binding of two of the protein structures.
authors.affiliation: ICFO-Institut de Ciències Fotòniques, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Satish
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bálint
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cossins
authors.forename: Victor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Guallar
authors.forename: Dmitri
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Petrov
mesh_terms: D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000737:chemistry; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000737:chemistry*; D006454:Hemoglobins / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008958:Models, Molecular; D052898:Optical Tweezers; D010100:Oxygen / Q000737:chemistry*; D011485:Protein Binding; D013059:Spectrum Analysis, Raman / Q000379:methods; D055672:Static Electricity; D013314:Stress, Mechanical
chemical_list: D006454:Hemoglobins; D010100:Oxygen